"...if anyone makes the assistance of grace depend on the humility or obedience of man and does not agree that it is a gift of grace itself that we are obedient and humble, he contradicts the Apostle who says, "What have you that you did not receive?" (1 Cor. 4:7), and, "But by the grace of God I am what I am" (1 Cor. 15:10). (Council of Orange: Canon 6)

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Essential Theology

John 3:16 - Exposing our Traditions

I wrote a short article on this verse some time back. In one section I wrote: It may come as a big surprise to learn that in the original Greek of John 3:16, there is no word "whoever." The word "whoever" is expressing a phrase in Greek which is difficult to express smoothly in English.

Literally, the text reads "in order that every the one believing in Him, not to perish, but have everlasting life." It says "every" or "all the one believing..." That's hard to express in English, but in essence, it is saying "all the believing ones." That's what is being communicated. It is saying that there is no such thing as a believing one who does not receive eternal life, but who perishes. Though our English translation says "whoever believes" the literal rendering is accurately translated as "every believing one" and the emphasis is NOT AT ALL on the "whosoever" but on the belief. The ones BELIEVING will not have one consequence but will have another. They will not perish but will have everlasting life.

Why? Because of the main verb - because God GAVE His Son. God gave His Son for the purpose (Greek: hina) that every believing one should not perish, but that every believing one should have everlasting life.

The text (John 3:16) actually speaks of a limitation of a particular rather than a universal redemption, for clearly, not everyone will be saved, but only those who believe in Christ. The Father gave His Son for the purpose of those who believe. The Son is given so that the believing ones will not perish, but opposite to that, have eternal life. That is the purpose of the giving.

So, what John 3:16 teaches is:
ALL who do A (believe in Him)
will not B (perish)
but will have C (everlasting life)

What does this text tell us about who WILL believe or who CAN believe? The answer is: ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! The text does not address the issue of who WILL believe or who CAN believe.

However, if you do want to know John's view on who CAN exercise faith, he does deal with that question - just not in this text. If you go back a few verses in the chapter to John 3:3, John quotes Jesus as saying "unless a man is born again he CANNOT enter the kingdom of God." That's clear isn't it?

Comments

If you will permit me, I would spin it like this:

God "so" loved is what my focus is on.

How does God LOVE, is the question only a "believer" would want to know seeing "only" the believer would want to "so" Love the world as Abba Father so loves the world.
I use the 3:16 and the 1/3:16 pitch when teaching on this subject as the bait with a hook to bring out the meaning of John 3:16.
What does this mean and how does this come to be in the world under the influences of the Beast, the False Prophet, Satan, Death, Hades and people whose names are not found in the book of Life though they are living in the same world as we, the Elect?
Well, as you refer to John 3:16 in this article I refer to 1 John 3:16 after it, pointing to the Greek word for life and lives: G5590
ÏˆÏ…Ï‡Î·Ì
psucheÌ„
psoo-khay'
From G5594; breath, that is, (by implication) spirit, abstractly or concretely (the animal sentient principle only; thus distinguished on the one hand from G4151, which is the rational and immortal soul; and on the other from G2222, which is mere vitality, even of plants: these terms thus exactly correspond respectively to the Hebrew [H5315], [H7307] and [H2416]: - heart (+ -ily), life, mind, soul, + us, + you.

In John 3:16, the Greek word for life is:G2222
Î¶Ï‰Î·Ì
zoÌ„eÌ„
dzo-ay'
From G2198; life (literally or figuratively): - life (-time). Compare G5590.

In 1 John 3:14-15 the same Greek word for "life" is used while in 1 John 3:16 John changes words to use the other Greek word.
What does this point to then for the disciple, who, now finds himself living/psuche a life/psuche in this world, living a Life/Zoe alongside the reprobates, not of the world of the reprobates, just living alongside, in the world of the reprobates? It is living a life/psuche as Jesus' Life/zoe life/psuche in this same world too as Jesus was â€œsentâ€ to live/psuche His Life/Zoe in this world among the reprobates who He certainly was not sent to save. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that those chosen to believe and were, clearly as Scripture teaches, predestined to believe, would â€œsoâ€ believe and â€œsoâ€ love the world in the world as Jesus did when He was living in the world, 1 John 3:14-16.

For me it is a simple matter of understanding the â€œlifeâ€/â€psucheâ€ Jesus lived, the Eternal Life/Son of God and, Jesus, same guy, mind you, who was born of a woman in the likeness of sinful flesh and then for the Glory of Our Heavenly Father lived/psuche as sinless a life as His Life/Zoe in Glory, the Son of God lived a sinless life/psuche in this world as the son of Man before Our Heavenly Father and before the Holy Ghost, who vindicated Him before Our Heavenly Father after He came back to live His Life in His deadened body so that those He died for would live as He has lived, by His own Will.

He also would continue to choose to reveal to those He died for in â€œallâ€ generations until the end of time after His resurrection, who Our Heavenly Father is. If you are reading this and do not believe Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, you are either a reprobate and this message has no meaning to you or you are being sanctified by the sanctifying work of the Holy Ghost and will soon enough come to know and believe Who Jesus is and why He died and for who He lives for today. Jesus, even today, lives for the Glory of God Our Heavenly Father and for the Glory of the Holy Ghost! He died to set men free to live the same as He lived in this world!

And, it is clear from Scripture that Our Heavenly Father reserves the "revelation" of Who Jesus is only to the Elect, the believers, so that as He lived/psuche in this world, so we too would live/psuche in this world as His believers, His followers, and as Sons of God too.

Only those who believe receive Eternal Life, knowing the only True God and Jesus Christ, who He sent, cf., John 17:3 and live/psuche as He lived, cf., 1 John 3:16. All others live as the god of this world lives. He lives to kill, steal and destroy all â€œlife/zoe, life/psucheâ€ in this world. He will come to his end soon!

This is why I encourage the believer to agree with Psalm 7 and pray according to it for the end of "all" evil and wickedness:::>

Psa 7:6 Arise, O LORD, in your anger; lift yourself up against the fury of my enemies; awake for me; you have appointed a judgment.
Psa 7:7 Let the assembly of the peoples be gathered about you; over it return on high.
Psa 7:8 The LORD judges the peoples; judge me, O LORD, according to my righteousness and according to the integrity that is in me.
Psa 7:9 Oh, let the evil of the wicked come to an end, and may you establish the righteous-- you who test the minds and hearts, O righteous God!

Of course, for any one of us to "believe" we are as righteous as is written about here in Psa 7, we would have already received revelation to believe what God the Father, who sent Jesus Christ to die for the Elect was doing when He was reconciling the world to Himself through His Son.

Now I will be so bold as to assert here that this does not mean He is "saving" everyone alive in the world. He is reconciling all things to Himself through the death of Christ on the Cross and making peace with the world:

Col 1:19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,
Col 1:20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
Col 1:21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds,
Col 1:22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,....

God is "so" loving the world that those that believe will likewise "so" love the world as Jesus as John writes in 1 John 3:14-16.

What finally is the point of this then?

Jesus Christ, "Eternal Son" emptied Himself of His "Eternal Nature" to become a temporal son of Adam to redeem the redeemable, the Elect and reconcile all mankind, both the redeemable Elect to God and the reprobate to God. It is now time for the Elect to rise up and reign in Life through Jesus Christ our Lord!

To them both, they receive "eternal Life/Zoe" which is of course, to the one, paradise, and to the other, damnation. It is hard to understand eternal life to be both eternal life with God and eternal life without God! Heaven, paradise in Jesus Christ is eternal life with God, forever. Eternal life without God, of course, then is life forever without God in hell:

Isa 66:24 "And they shall go out and look on the dead bodies of the men who have rebelled against me. For their worm shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh."

This is hard to understand but God is the One who created all things and it is not hard for Him to understand it. God knows His own and has indeed sealed us forever:

Eph 1:13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,
Eph 1:14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

God "so" loved the world that those that have been predestined to "believe" in the atonement of Christ when He died for the redemption of the Elect believe and love even their enemies as Jesus and Paul wrote already and we do:

Luk 6:32 "If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them.
Luk 6:33 And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same.
Luk 6:34 And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to get back the same amount.
Luk 6:35 But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.

Gal 6:8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.
Gal 6:9 And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.
Gal 6:10 So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.